This paper provides a critical insight into the different factors responsible for indebtedness and feelings of distress among farmers in India. Natural factors (drought, cyclones and floods), along with institutional factors (inputs, credit, markets, etc), contribute to the capital dependence of farmers. The situation of small, marginal and large-scale farmers is discussed. After elaborating on the existing conditions, the authors suggest measures that could be taken by government and offer recommendations for overcoming the crisis, such as forming farmers' groups, reducing input costs by adopting non-pesticidal management, rectifying market anomalies and providing counselling and confidence-building measures in distress‘hot spots’.
ChowdharyP. A. (2002), ‘Report’, The Farmers' Commission of Experts on Agriculture in Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad.
2.
Committee on Capital Formation in Agriculture (2005), ‘Report of the Committee on Capital Formation in Agriculture’, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, Website: http://agricoop.nic.in/Capital%20Formation/annexes.xls (accessed 18 January 2006).
3.
GhoshJ. (2005), ‘Trade liberalisation in agriculture: An examination of impact and policy strategies with special reference to India’, Background Paper for Human Development Report 2005, Human Development Report Office, New York.
4.
Government of Andhra Pradesh (2005), ‘Report’, The Commission on Farmers' Welfare, Hyderabad.
5.
KumarS. MohanaSharmaR. K. (2006), ‘Analysis of farmer suicides in Kerala’, Economic and Political Weekly, 22 April, pp 1553–1558.
6.
RaoP. NarasimhaSuriK. C. (2006), ‘Dimensions of agrarian distress in Andhra Pradesh’, Economic and Political Weekly, 22 April, pp 1546–1552.
7.
National Sample Survey Organisation (2005a), ‘Some aspects of farming’, Report No 496, Situation Assessment Survey of Farmers, 59th Round, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India, New Delhi.
8.
National Sample Survey Organisation (2005b), ‘Indebtedness of farmer households’, Report No 498, Situation Assessment Survey of Farmers, 59th Round, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India, New Delhi.
9.
National Sample Survey Organisation (2005c), ‘Household assets and liabilities in India’, Report No 500, Situation Assessment Survey of Farmers, 59th Round, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India, New Delhi.
KumarPramodSharmaS. L. (1998), Suicides in Rural Punjab, Institute for Development and Communication, Chandigarh.
12.
ReddyV. Ratna (2003), ‘Irrigation: Development and reforms’, in RaoC. H. HanumanthaDevS. Mahendra, eds, Andhra Pradesh Development, Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad, pp 170–201.
13.
SeibelH. D. (2005), ‘Does history matter? The old and the new world of microfinance in Europe and Asia’, paper presented at From Moneylenders to Microfinance: South East Asia's Credit Revolution in Institutional, Economic and Cultural Perspective. An Interdisciplinary Workshop, 7–8 October, Asia Research Institute, Departments of Economics and Sociology, National University of Singapore.
14.
VandanaShivaEmaniAshokJafriAfsar H. (1999), ‘Globalisation and threat to seed security: Case of transgenic cotton trials in India’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol 34, No 10, pp 601–613.
15.
JoshiSopan (2006), ‘No pesticides’, Down To Earth, Vol 15, No 1, pp 22–31.
16.
MishraSrijit (2006), ‘Suicide of farmers in Maharashtra’, report submitted to the Government of Maharashtra, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai.
17.
SuriK. C. (2006), ‘Political economy of agrarian distress’, Economic and Political Weekly, 22 April, pp 1523–1529.
18.
SwaminathanM. S. (2006), ‘New life to the lands of death’, The Indian Express, 13 February.
19.
Tata Institute of Social Sciences – TISS (2005), ‘Causes of farmers suicides in Maharashtra: An enquiry’, report submitted to the High Court, Mumbai.
20.
VasaviA. R. (1999), ‘Agrarian distress, market, state and suicides’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol 34, No 32, April, pp 2263–2268.
21.
VidyasagarR.ChandraK. Suman (2003), Farmers' Suicides in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, Centre for Social Development, National Institute for Rural Development, Hyderabad.
